It is well chronicled that many Black Sabbath fans only consider the eight albums with Ozzy Osbourne to be canon, but this album, along with Never Say Die! (1978) can be challenging to the purists, who clearly lose interest after the fast part of "Symptom of the Universe" dissolved on Sabotage (1975). The band has actually been showing signs of fatigue and strain as far back as Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973) but the paradigm shift hit somewhere during the Sabotage recording sessions, when the classic "Sabbath sound" that launched entire genres from stoner rock to doom metal gave way to a more standard hard rock sound, with softer moments and more keyboards. While Sabotage is still beloved by the purists (a "true" Sabbath album with a few weak spots), Technical Ecstasy is not (a "phony" Sabbath album with a few flashbacks of brilliance). Suddenly, the band that extolled "Iron Man" and "Children of the Grave" was playing homages to rock and roll ("Back Street Kids", and the tepid single "Rock and Roll Doctor") and even ballads ("It's Alright", "She's Gone"). Sure, there were a few moments to remind listeners this was still Black Sabbath ("You Won't Change Me", "Dirty Women"), but they are in the minority and none really are true throwbacks to the early days.
Reading over the above paragraph makes me sound like one of these purists. I am not. In fact, I am so not pure that I am confessing right here that Technical Ecstasy was the first album by Black Sabbath I ever bought. Keep in mind this was 1993 and I didn't work for the Department of Defense, so the Internet wasn't a part of my life and my friends weren't much into 1970's metal, so things boiled down into a bit of a guessing game as to what album to try out. I think my 17 year old mind thought I should just pick up something from the year of my birth. Beside all of this, I enjoy Black Sabbath is all of its different forms: the Ozzy, Dio, Gillan, and (somewhat) Tony Martin eras. None of them are perfect. For example, the Dio stuff is technically far more proficient than any of the Ozzy albums, but they are more representative than groundbreaking for the music of the times.
Turning back to our featured album, it would seem that the main liabilities are the lightweight material and the poor production work. The production is really quite bad, leaving everything sounding a little muddy. It seems like if you see Robin Black as the producer, proceed with caution. Black was primarily involved with Jethro Tull in an engineer capacity and fell in with Sabbath around 1975, also as an engineer. Stuff with Black credited as "engineer" seem fine, but the two Sabbath albums where he is the producer, this one and 1983's Born Again, have some of the most hideous production I have ever heard at the professional level. As for the material, sure it's a bit light. Bill Ward makes his singing debut on "It's Alright", as mellow as old "Changes" from way back when, but even more laid back. While light, the material is also fairly adventurous compared to what came before and most definitely compared to what lay ahead in the 1980's. There is a lot of keyboards going on, something that had become more a part of the band since Rick Wakeman lent his services to Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. They are used to great effect on "You Won't Change Me" and "Gypsy" in particular and tastefully enough on "Back Street Kids" and "Dirty Women". On the other hand "Rock and Roll Doctor" is honky tonk to the point of almost putting Dio's old band Elf to shame. There is still a great deal of emphasis on the riffs, something Sabbath did very well on the previous three albums, but Tony Iommi was getting more frisky in his soloing and would continue to create solo-dominated songs well into the next decade and simply the riffs. If the "Freebird"-esque "Dirty Women" wasn't a sign of things to come, I'd be hard-pressed to point out another song.
Ozzy people cite this album as the reason he quit, emphasizing his "refusal" to sing on "It's Alright" and being moved to stage left, putting Iommi in the center. True, it wasn't a happy time for Ozzy or the band in general, soured by drugs, con-men, constant touring, and other rock and roll hardships. In fact, he did quit the band after the album, which continued with ex-Fleetwood Mac singer Dave Walker. Neither side was happy with the new order and the old band was quickly reassembled. Never Say Die! is a far better album with better production and more exciting material, but it was only a stopgap measure and Ozzy left again (or was fired? - it depends on who's talking) and even Geezer Butler threw in the towel, albeit very briefly. The music obviously took a new direction under Ronnie James Dio. Although the Dio era itself was quite short, it established Black Sabbath as Tony Iommi's band going forward all the way into the 1990's.
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